Whitehaven and Others

After reading the Memphis blog, Bring Back Whitehaven, I have to say that I agree 200%. Though I have never been to Graceland myself, there is absolutely no denying the magnitude of its drawing power on tourists, especially fans of The King. It is somewhat embarrassing to have people come from out of town and from other countries to visit a landmark like Graceland and see the blighted areas leading up to it. It must make them think to themselves, "damn, if this is how they treat Graceland, then it must be how they treat ALL of their landmarks. Why even bother going to see them if we can just expect more trash and blight when we get there.

Though I agree with the plight of Whitehaven's blight, there are many other areas withing the city of Memphis that are slowly decaying and creating havens for criminals to carry out their dastardly deeds. Revitalization of Downtown Memphis is nearly complete, but the city's leaders need to shift their focus from that, once completed, to the other areas of Memphis that look post-apocolyptic.

The plan to improve Whitehaven is a very good one. And it can be expanded to other areas as well. One key factor that can help this plan along would be to have more police patrolling the streets to keep crime away and impose stiffer penalties on criminals for the crimes they commit. I think we have been taking it too easy on those who commit crimes, allowing them to go free later and just commit more crimes. This has got to stop somewhere or we will stop having decent places to live in this city and the Federal government will have to bomb this city and start from scratch.